Anna Faris on Observe and Report

Anna Faris plays another outrageous character in Observe and Report. As Brandi, the makeup girl at a mall department store, she’s a superficial slutty ditz who only gets worse with alcohol.

Anna Faris on Observe and Report

"Luckily our characters aren’t supposed to click that well, but it was just a bunch of dudes hanging out in Albuquerque,” Faris said. “I got to pop in and be this awful girl for a while. My character is so outrageous and it’s so ridiculous so I think you can get away with a lot. The audience is almost forgiving because, hopefully, she’s clearly not me.”

Though she specializes in these wild personas, Faris is just happy to work. “Truth be told, getting a job is always a victory in this town but I had seen Foot Fist Way, [Jody Hill’s] first movie and loved it and loved this idea we've been talking about a little bit, the idea of this unapologetic comedy, which I think Foot Fist Way is as well. Then when I read this script and was able to go in and meet with the guys for it, I was really happy because it's very rare that you come across a character that's so offensive and awful. It's just like taking a bite of a juicy apple but naughty. As a woman, it's great to be able to not have to win over an audience I guess. And Jody, he just wanted me, for all of us essentially I guess, to be as awful as we could. So there's a lot of freedom in that.”

Observe and Report

Observe and Report

She still never expected the film to go as far as it did, but now she’s proud of it. “I sort of thought that our tender lovemaking moment, I thought, Jody was like, ‘Okay, you guys are having sex and you're going to have some vomit come out of your mouth, you're passed out and your boobs are jiggling all over.’ I was comforted by the studio. I was like, you know what? There's no way. There's no way. I'll do it, sure, because I don't want to be a stick in the mud but there's no way this is going to make it in the movie. I'm grateful, I'm grateful. I'm grateful that the movie is unapologetic.”

And Faris is happy to keep going for laughs. Whatever Hollywood wants from her. “Certainly felt a few years ago, I put a lot of pressure on myself to do something dramatic. I felt the need to prove to this town or to my parents or whomever, you guys, that maybe I can also be a dramatic actress as well. Just recently in the last year, I've had a complete change of mindset which has been very liberating which is like, comedy's hard enough. I don't know why I necessarily feel this pressure to do something else. I love doing this and it makes me happy so I think coming to that realization has been a path in and of itself and I feel grateful that I feel really content.”